Premium
The antifungal plant defensin RsAFP2 from radish induces apoptosis in a metacaspase independent way in Candida albicans
Author(s) -
Aerts An M.,
Carmona-Gutierrez Didac,
Lefevre Sophie,
Govaert Gilmer,
François Isabelle E.J.A.,
Madeo Frank,
Santos Renata,
Cammue Bruno P.A.,
Thevissen Karin
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/j.febslet.2009.07.004
Subject(s) - candida albicans , raphanus , caspase , proteases , biology , defensin , microbiology and biotechnology , corpus albicans , apoptosis , pathogen , biochemistry , enzyme , antimicrobial , programmed cell death , botany
We show that the antifungal plant defensin Raphanus sativus antifungal protein 2 (RsAFP2) from radish induces apoptosis and concomitantly triggers activation of caspases or caspase‐like proteases in the human pathogen Candida albicans . Furthermore, we demonstrate that deletion of C. albicans metacaspase 1, encoding the only reported (putative) caspase in C. albicans , significantly affects caspase activation by the apoptotic stimulus acetic acid, but not by RsAFP2. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the induction of apoptosis with concomitant caspase activation by a defensin in this pathogen. Moreover, our data point to the existence of at least two different types of caspases or caspase‐like proteases in C. albicans .